Almost a year ago, several councilmembers, including some from the Bronx, visited children at a Kibbutz along the Gaza envelope as part of a study tour in Israel.
Council Member Eric Dinowitz, the chair of the body’s Jewish Caucus who represents the Bronx’s CD-11, described the scene as “any other playground” — kids running and playing, teachers keeping watch.
But today he is looking back at last year’s trip in pain, since the Kibbutz he visited has been met with violence and bloodshed since the militant group Hamas launched its attack on Israel earlier this month in the Middle East’s latest battle for the Holy Land.
“What Hamas did was unspeakable hatred,” Dinowitz told the Bronx Times in an interview this week.
Hamas — an armed Palestinian militant group that is on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist organizations — stormed the Gaza-Israel border on Oct. 7 in a surprise attack during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, gunning down Israeli civilians and soldiers, kidnapping others and firing rockets from their base. In a state of shock, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas.
The Kibbutz — called Kfar Aza — is one of many in Israel, where people live based on a social contract that includes communal principles and sharing their income collectively. Bronx Council Member Marjorie Velázquez, who was on the study tour in Israel last December, said visiting Kfar Aza was a profound educational and informative experience.
“Touring Kfar Aza, you not only immerse yourself into what everyday life is like for people who live there and create bonds with folks who call the Kibbutz ‘home,’ but you also begin to much better understand the dangers that lurk right around the corner,” the Throggs Neck council member said. “It breaks my heart hearing what happened to Kfar Aza, people who lived in the Kibbutz murdered or taken hostage in the recent attacks.”
Both Dinowitz and Velázquez have been outspoken in their support for Israel since the terrorist attacks, and many other Bronx politicians have also taken public stands in solidarity with the nation.
The NYC-DSA rally scheduled today is a travesty.
Hosting this event as Hamas terrorists are barbarically attacking innocent civilians during a high holiday can only be interpreted as attempting to justify antisemitic acts of evil.
I denounce this repugnant display. https://t.co/gZ3q7DUHdo
— Marjorie Velázquez (@mvelaznyc) October 8, 2023
Dinowitz told the Bronx Times he was able to make contact with the local woman who gave the councilmembers the tour of Kfar Aza last year, and that she and her family are safe. But, he said, there are others along the Gaza-Israel border who have been “burned,” “butchered” and “murdered.”
“If they haven’t been directly impacted, they know someone who has,” Dinowitz said about the Kfar Aza residents.
Velázquez said the news her office has received about the border “hasn’t been good.”
“It’s one thing to hear the news stories and see the images online,” she said. “It’s a whole other thing when you have bonds with people you met and literally broke bread with.”
Both Bronx politicos emphasized that in war times like these it is imperative to denounce all forms of hate and terror — both overseas and locally.
“Whether it’s anti-Semitism or Islamophobia, in our five boroughs or abroad, we have to rise above our differences,” Velázquez said. “We cannot let terrorists continue to divide us through such hateful tactics as we are trying to find peaceful solutions.”
“The source of this pain, these deaths, lies with Hamas,” Dinowitz said.
Reach Camille Botello at cbotello@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
